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A review by sanamun
Gena/Finn by Kat Helgeson, Hannah Moskowitz
3.0
I was hovering between 3 and 4 for this, I like it but I feel like there were a lot of things that were set up and didn't really go anywhere. It just kind of ended, like the writer hit some kind of arbitrary page limit.
The good: realistic portrayal of fandom (far, far better than Fangirl imo, mostly because fans TALK to eachother), the characters, tried to do something meta and interesting, complex relationships that resist easy categorisation.
The bad: Nothing is ever resolved. The book just arbitrarily ends. I feel a need to stress this. I felt like I'd missed a page.
The meh: Gena's psychosis/PTSD is compelling to read about but questionable in terms of authenticity; the mixed-media format, while interesting, sometimes feels repetitive/forced/serves to obscure details.
The problematic: Gena/Finn are one of the most ambiguously queer relationships I've seen in a while (fitting, for a book about fandom culture), I appreciated having a more complex relationship that couldn't be easily categorised as romantic/platonic/whatever, but I wish it had been explored more. I understand why people felt queerbaited by this.
The good: realistic portrayal of fandom (far, far better than Fangirl imo, mostly because fans TALK to eachother), the characters, tried to do something meta and interesting, complex relationships that resist easy categorisation.
The bad: Nothing is ever resolved. The book just arbitrarily ends. I feel a need to stress this. I felt like I'd missed a page.
The meh: Gena's psychosis/PTSD is compelling to read about but questionable in terms of authenticity; the mixed-media format, while interesting, sometimes feels repetitive/forced/serves to obscure details.
The problematic: Gena/Finn are one of the most ambiguously queer relationships I've seen in a while (fitting, for a book about fandom culture), I appreciated having a more complex relationship that couldn't be easily categorised as romantic/platonic/whatever, but I wish it had been explored more. I understand why people felt queerbaited by this.